KEY POINTS:
One of the more important observers at the Wairakei Open was Anthony Knight, universally known as "Antman." He's been one of the best caddies for the last two decades, working for Sergio Garcia, Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby, although his most successful association was in seven years with
Frank Nobilo in the early 1990s.
The Tauranga resident still totes golf bags part-time (he worked seven tournaments with Michael Campbell this year) and was asked to watch the New Zealand amateur team in action last weekend.
Danny Lee, Troy Ropiha and Nick Gillespie, along with James Gill who's still overseas, play in the Asia Pacific championship in Taiwan next month. They're the cream of the next generation of young Kiwi professional hopefuls.
A man who's caddied on some of the world's great courses and watched and advised, world class players knows about how to get the most out of a round of golf through solid preparation and course management. He says our best young players have much to learn about how to score consistently well.
"I told them what I thought and reckoned I could save each of them two shots a round through better thinking and preparation. Think how much that will improve the team's performance."
Knight's major beef was their lack of knowledge about distances on the course and how far they needed to hit shots for maximum benefit. Wairakei has sprinkler heads on the fairways which are a guide for the social player but an elite performer needs to know far more.
"How far it is to the front and the back of the green? What's the best part of the green to play for? Is it a pin position you should be trying to get close to?
"These kids are great strikers of the golf ball but there's so much more to scoring well than just hitting it well. Like, you might have 130m to the hole on a sloping green and you hit it a bit hard and have a really fast 10m putt downhill putt coming back. Why not try to hit the ball 125m and leave yourself an uphill putt which gives you a chance.
"There's a hole at Wairakei, the 13th. It's a par four with a couple of bunkers on either side of the fairway about where these guys would hit their drive. The landing area there is about 20m wide.
"I told them that if they hit a three wood off the tee, they had far more margin for error with a wayward tee shot and still be able to reach the green easily for two. One of the guys did that, he hit a big hook where the fairway was 50m wide, nowhere near the bunker. He still only had about an 8-iron to the green."
This sounds logical and should be basic stuff for our top amateurs. But, despite the best efforts of team coaches like Brian Doyle and James Kupa, the message does not appear to be sinking in. Kupa was instrumental in getting Knight to go to Wairakei, hoping that the same words coming from somebody who's been up close with the best in the game might have more impact.
If there's a top result in Taiwan, the Antman will have played a significant part.
